Des Dillon certainly knows a thing or two about timing. This week his play about the bombing of Pam Am Flight 103 opened in Scotland on the very day reports emerged that Libya was prepared to accept civil responsibility for the Lockerbie tragedy.
Inspired by the book Cover up of Convenience, by John Ashton and Ian Ferguson, Lockerbie 103 examines the allegation that Libyan Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi was wrongly convicted of the bombing. This, goes the theory, was because of the US government's desire to keep on good terms with the real culprit, Iran.
No surprise, then, that among the busy audience on Wednesday's debut were members of the Scottish legal profession and Labour MP and Father of the House Tam Dalyell.
Fascinating though Dillon's material is, the play is a clunky adaptation, dogged by cup-and-saucer naturalism and bereft of true dramatic fire. He sets the play in Annie McDowell's B&B in rural Dumfries and Galloway, where the guests include an exiled Palestinian investigative reporter and a patriotic US soldier with a mysterious obsession with the disaster. Yes, very likely.
Even if you accept this premise, you're stuck with two central characters who are so much smaller than the play's weighty arguments. All actor George Savvides can do as the journalist is plough through the mass of evidence, while Nathan Nolan, as his sceptical US inquisitor, only has pertinent questions to ask.
There is one brief glimpse of the play that might have been. Two bomb-makers walk on stage and deliver their evidence straight. The exchange has the taste of real drama and demonstrates that sometimes truth is more compelling than fiction.
· Until Saturday. Box office: 0131-228 1404. Then touring.
